AfricaPress-mozambique: Mozambique’s First National Conference on Climate Change on Thursday recommended that all sectors must “pursue and strengthen Mozambique’s Nationally Determined Contribution, involving all parties interested in and affected by climate change”.
The “Nationally Determined Contributions” are non-binding national plans highlighting climate actions, including climate related targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emission, and the policies and measures governments aim to implement in response to climate change. This is intended as a contribution to achieve the global targets set out in the Paris climate change agreement.
Reading out the recommendations at the end of the conference, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Land and Environment, Emilia Fumo, said climate change issues must be included in strategic and development plans at all levels.
The actions envisaged in the government’s National Strategy for Adaptation to and Mitigation of Climate Change must be implemented in full, she said, “to reduce the country’s vulnerability to the adverse effects of climate change”.
Education on climate change must be undertaken, added Fumo, “particularly in the local communities that are most affected”, and early warning systems must be strengthened.
“The Ministry of Land and Environment”, she said, “must reflect on how the international community can support the country in implementing the institutional arrangements for climate transparency so as to ensure that Mozambique draws up and submits in due time reports that are robust and more reliable”.
A “Platform of Climate Transparency” should be established, “so that the public has access to Mozambique’s Nationally Determined Contribution and similar documents. In the meantime, documents already available or under preparation, should be divulged on the Ministry’s website”.
The conference recommended that local plans of adaptation to climate change should be incorporated into District Social and Economic Plans and District budgets. By 2025, all Mozambican districts should have Local Adaptation Plans. The Ministry of Economy and Finance should ensure that these local plans are integrated into the district budgets.
District governments and local communities, Fumo added, must take ownership of climate change adaptation and mitigation actions.
Pursuing these goals would mean mobilising additional financial and technological resources, she said, “and so we invite our partners to increase their support in this area”.
